The government has signalled it is ready to investigate tax breaks for developers of video games to enable them to compete with similar incentives from countries such as France which was given a go-ahead from the EC to allow 20% tax relief for those who met certain cultural criteria.
‘We have now succeeded in persuading colleagues across government that we should look again at this issue, particularly in light of the French situation,’ Margaret Hodge, creative industries minister, told a games industry seminar in Westminster yesterday, the Financial Times reports.
Hodge stressed the UK games industry would ‘need to demonstrate a genuine market failure’ for her department to persuade the Treasury to introduce a similar scheme.
‘We are nervous about these forms of tax relief,’ she said. ‘Because there is a fiscal squeeze, we don’t want to get into an international Dutch auction where we vie to outbid each other on tax relief.’
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